FIRST-HAND BITS OF STABLE LORE 



angular outline of the high-backed Victoria (which 

 found such speedy oblivion, thank Fortune), and 

 at the next they insist upon the graceful, flowing 

 lines of the beautiful sea-shell pattern. Now for 

 this, and again for that, but all as caprice or fancy 

 dictates ; and never do the safety and practical 

 usefulness of either carriage, harness, or methods 

 of " putting to " the horses appear as factors 

 either in public appreciation or show ring de- 

 cision, while some of the requirements are posi- 

 tively dangerous and unsafe. For example, pole 

 straps must never go around the collar-throats 

 (nor must the breast-plates), and yet, otherwise, 

 the whole weight of the vehicle, etc., which may 

 be three tons of coach and passengers, is stopped 

 and held back, by what ? Why, by a hames-strap 

 not half an inch wide, nor a quarter of an inch 

 thick, confined by a tiny buckle with a tongue (on 

 which all the strain may come) no larger than a 

 match — a mere bit of wire — and bear in mind, 

 if this wire breaks, and the pole straps are not 

 around the collars, everything goes. So with the 

 breast-plate, which, properly (P) appointed, must 

 work upon the kidney-link wire only. Of what 

 earthly use is it there in case of need.^ and how 

 generally you find it so loose that it never tightens 



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